Photo taken on Sept. 21, 2018 shows the Luang Prabang cross-Mekong River super major bridge under construction by the China Railway No.8 Engineering Group (CREC-8) in Luang Prabang, Laos. The concrete casting for the first block of the Luang Prabang cross-Mekong River super major bridge's continuous beam along the China-Laos Railway was completed on Sept. 17, the Chinese contractor told Xinhua on Saturday. (Xinhua/Liu Ailun)

LUANG PRABANG, Laos, Sept. 21 (Xinhua) -- The concrete casting for the first block of the Luang Prabang cross-Mekong River super major bridge' continuous beam along the China-Laos Railway was completed on Sept. 17, the Chinese contractor told Xinhua on Saturday.

Yan Haiyong, CPC party secretary of the China Railway No.8 Engineering Group (CREC-8)'s railway project department, who is in charge of the construction of the two bridges across the Mekong along the China-Laos Railway, said that the Luang Prabang railway bridge with a total length of 1458.9 meters, is a key project of the China-Laos Railway.

According to Yan, the bridge's continuous beam design has high technical standards and is difficult to construct with pier-side bracket. The first block of the continuous beam has a length of 12 meters and consumes a concrete volume of 266 cubic meters.

The China-Laos Railway starts from the border between China and Laos in northern Laos and ends in Vientiane, the capital of Laos. It is the first overseas railway project to be invested, constructed and operated jointly by the Chinese side and directly connected to the Chinese railway network.

The China-Laos Railway is 414 km long, of which the bridge is about 62 km long and the tunnel is about 198 km long.

The China-Lao Railway adopts Chinese technical standards and uses Chinese equipment. It started construction in December 2016. It is scheduled to be completed and open to traffic in December 2021.

The project is designed, constructed and operated in accordance with Chinese railway standards and has a design operating speed of 160 km per hour.